


Once Around

by HerbertBest



Category: Game Grumps
Genre: Awkwardness, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Love Confessions, Polyfidelity, Romance, Secret Crush, roller skating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-02
Updated: 2016-12-02
Packaged: 2018-09-03 18:51:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8726221
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HerbertBest/pseuds/HerbertBest
Summary: Barry's crush on Suzy blooms to life in the nicest and most unexpected way possible.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ToothyVoid (Mysticgator)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mysticgator/gifts).



> Written for ToothyVoid/Mysticgator for this year's Grumpmas!

“And next time on Steam Train,” Suzy giggled, “Barry and me are going to try to get off the first level of this level! And maybe stop dying, too!” 

Barry let out a mighty groan as his sprite –a tiny fairy with blue wings – fell for the hundredth time into a pit with a flood of pixilated blood. 

Suzy turned toward Barry, “I think I’ll play next time,” she grinned. “Wanna take a break?”

“Nah – I’m finally on a roll,” he said, as his fairy fluttered into the open mouth of a frog.

“That’s what I like about you, Barry,” she said, sipping her canned iced tea before getting up to stretch. “You never ever give up.”

She didn’t notice that his cheeks had turned crimson under the dark shadow of his beard.

*** 

Barry had no good answer to the question ‘how did you fall in love with Suzy Berhow?’. It was one of those things that seemed to have happened gradually – with a laugh or a gesture, with a smile or a kind thought. One minute she’d been in a mental box, compartmentalized as ‘Arin’s wife’; the next seeing and being with her proved vital to his balance. Barry had no way to explain why and how this was happening to him, so he simply gritted his teeth and walked through his day to day life being haunted by fantasies and memories. 

He needed to let go of her, he thought to himself, as he watched her slip into place across from him at the restaurant. The rest of the recording had been a long haze of listening to her laugh and laughing himself. Suzy had that easy ability, to make him laugh at himself, and at the world around them. 

Their sushi was halfway gone when the conversation shifted away from the simple pleasantries and lighter discussions of what they’d done during their day together. “So do you have any plans for the weekend?” Suzy asked him lightly. 

“Oh, nothing much – probably sitting around the apartment. Probably playing Overwatch.”

“Oh cool! I’d love to play with you – if you don’t mind,” She added quickly, her cheeks turning a slightly darker shade of red under her contouring. 

Barry raised an eyebrow as he tucked a maki roll into his mouth. Was he just imagining things, or was Suzy actually trying to flirt with him?

*** 

Suzy flushed and tried to avert her eyes as she stuffed more sushi into her mouth. Did she have to be so obvious about her feelings?! Her weird feelings, that she’d spent hours talking with her husband about that her husband had reassured her were completely normal and natural – feelings he was in turn okay with because it freed him up a bit to pursue Dan. 

When had she gotten a crush on Barry? How had it even happened, and why was she still trying to fight it off when she had some idea that he liked her back? Was it because she didn’t want to complicate things more than they were already being complicated with Arin? Was it because she was afraid of rejection? Was it because she didn’t want to wreck their friendship and thus ruin the balance of their attraction?

Ugh, why must life be so complex?

“Hey,” Barry said sweetly, “Would you like to come skating with me?”

“God, I haven’t been since the summer.” She hadn’t been around when Dan and Brian had been filming their video, but she’d been out with Arin to the same rink before. And it was about time she got used to sharing ‘their’ places with other people.

“Can you?”

“Oh yes, I’d love to.”

*** 

The loudspeaker was blasting Jessica Simpson as Barry rented them skates. Suzy’s first steps onto the rink were wobbly – but then Barry reached out and rested his hand on her shoulder.

Strangely, she felt as if she could do anything when he did that.

Slowly moving in rhythm to the music, Suzy heard Barry laugh quietly. Their eyes locked. His blush deepened.

“Barry?” 

“Suz?” 

“Um,” she began. “I know this is a pretty weird question but we’re sort of alone right now…”

“We are,”: Barry observed cheerfully. 

“So I guess no one will overhear us if I ask this…”

****

Total panic crossed Barry’s features as he wheeled around and let go of Suzy. What could she be asking him? Why was she speaking so seriously to him, in tones that could only mean the worst of news was on the way? “I can be out in a week,” he said immediately.

“Wait, what?” Suzy wondered.

He flushed. “Um…you’ve been acting strangely all night and I figured that you figured it was because of me, that maybe you wanted me to be gone?”

“Oh Barry!” she shook her head. “I’m never going to ask you to leave, I promise,” she said. “Do you remember how Arin was talking about how he and Dan have been um…getting closer lately?”

“Yes?” Dan had seemed unusually chipper over the past couple of weeks but he thought that had to do with the band scoring a record deal.

“Well, I gave him permission to see Dan. Just Dan,” she added quickly. “And he gave me permission to see one more person and…” She groaned. “This is so dumb. You’re still seeing that girl from the fro yo place, right?”

“No!” Barry squeaked. “No,” he said, deliberately deepening his voice. “I’m not seeing anybody at all.”

Suzy smiled. “Bar…if I could be with anyone but Arin – anyone in the world, it’d be you. Would you like to see how this thing…I don’t know what to call it now, but…how things might go?”

‘I don’t know what to say,” he admitted.

“Say yes,” she encouraged.

“Oh yes, Suzy,” he grinned. “For as long as you’d like, for as much as you’d like, I’ll be your partner.”

She was the one who pulled him into the first embrace, the first kiss. And as his heartbeat accelerated Barry knew he’d finally done it – finally found his forever girl, and that all of his wishing and hoping hadn’t been a dead end after all.


End file.
